Giveaway!!!

To thank you all for reading and following my blog, it's time for another Pixiepine giveaway!!! I have a new copy of Rabbit Food up for grabs!

About Rabbit Food:

Rabbit Food Cookbook is a unique, illustrated and handcrafted recipe book with 82 vegan/strict vegetarian recipes (which means there are just a couple with honey) plus other miscellaneous information about food and food history.

The book is illustrated with 250+ pen & ink drawings and block print stamps, so it's nice to look at and fun to flip through - in addition to being useful in the kitchen. The recipe sections have tab dividers for easy access.
Rabbit Food Cookbook has 190 pages plus 6 cardstock dividers, hardback davyboard covers with hand-silkscreened art, and it now comes with wire-o binding. Dimensions are 4.5 in x 5.5 in x 1 in.
The book is printed and published in the USA, in Portland, OR, in short-run editions with 30% recycled pages and 100% recycled davey board covers.


So there you go...now on to ways you can enter!!

Mandatory:
*Become a follower of Pixiepine Blog on Blogger or Networked Blogs via my blog and say you are a follower in a comment.


Once you have done the mandatory entry, here are more ways you can enter:
*Follow Pixiepine Blog on Twitter & retweet (1 extra entry)
*Retweet every day for an extra entry per day- post in a comment each time.
*Blog about the giveaway and post a link to your blog post in the comments below. (1 extra entry)
*Comment on a non-giveaway post in my blog. Please let me know which post! (1 extra entry)

Entries will be accepted until March 8, 2010, Midnight EST. I will notify the winner the following day! You will have 48 hours to claim your prize or I will have to pick another winner.
Open to USA and Canadian Residents Only

Winner will be chosen through random.org. Thanks for participating in this giveaway!

Zoe's Bag Boutique

A while back I entered a giveaway at Zoe's Bag Boutique celebrating 15 years in business. I won a gift certificate and here's what I chose!

It's the sweet-as-pie Sweet Pea Mini Wallet/Purse Organizer. It's cute, functional, well-made, and my favorite...orange!!!

Here are the specifics.

 I alo really liked all the messanger bag choices. Check out the shop, where you can build your own with custom fabrics and features. Fun!!!

Gross Delicious Treat!!!

Hello my dears! Let me tell you about a recent treat I made myself. Following Eat To Live can be challenging at times, but I'm sticking with it. I'm eating a little more "white food" than I was before, but it's still little or none most of the time.

I was craving a junk food burrito and needed a quick meal, so here's what I came up with. It soooo hit the spot and tasted suprisingly "gross"....so satisfying and really not to bad for me!!

Sprouted grain tortilla, black beans, veg meat crumbles, Tofutti sour cream, veg cheese, and tofu doggies! I rolled it up, dipped it in salsa, and smacked my lips at the gas-station style goodness!! :P

Score!!!!

Simplifying in 2010

I am itching (not literally, thank goodness!) to get on a simplification kick. I posted during 2009 about some of my efforts to scale down junk, spend less money, and relax more. I'm afraid, looking back, that I was still just a little too focused on acquiring cute, non-exploitative stuff, rather than working towards actual lifestyle changes of having less and doing more. We've been through a lot this year as a new family, and I have some new priorities. I feel a little more sure about my ability to make changes, and feel the burn of the hectic day-to-day stuff, so I think it's a nice time to make gentle steps toward lightening the load.

I usually get really overwhelmed with cleaning out things and weeding out goofy habits, but I am trying to approach it as fun. I got on quite a shopping bender this year, and who wouldn't when you have spare money and your body suddenly fits into the cute girl stuff? The result is a lot of debit card swipes and way too many pieces of clothing for me ever to keep track of. So...Ebay! It's like a game. I'm having fun, and when I start to feel stressed, I step away from the closet and take a break for a day, a week, whatever.

I really like reading Walk Slowly, Live Wildly for ideas on simplifying. I'll post more here as I work on easing in 2010 with a new attitude towards stuff....

Self Magazine: Enchilada Bake

Here's my final recipe from the Self Magazine Cook Once, Eat Healthy All Week series.

It began as a Cheesy Enchildada Bake and magically transformed into a sprouted grain, veg cheese, chickpea extravaganza. I threw in a bunch of random veggies to replace everything I left out, and topped it with soy cheese. It was really delicious!!!

It would be awesome if some industrious vegan chef out there did a series like this. I love the idea, but the subs were kind of tiring after a while, and though the food was great, it would be neat to have recipes that trun out how they are supposed to! Have fun!

Self Magazine Recipe: Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

Today's recipe from the Self Magazine "Cook Once, Eat Healthy All Week" article is: Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie.

It uses the building blocks, plus leftovers from the Adobo-Glazed Mini Turkey (in my case, veggie crumble!) loaves.

Humble looking, but healthy and delicious. I like how all these recipes make smaller dishes. It's just enough for two people for a few meals.

Self Magazine Recipe: Veg-fied Meatloaf

Ok...the original recipe was Adobo-Glazed Mini Turkey Loaves. I obviously had a lot of substituting and changing to do. The dish morphed into something totally different, but was still yummy and easy!

I used veg crumbles instead of turkey, and didn't use the egg called for...the result was more of a thick meaty sauce, despite the fact that I baked these mini loaves in muffin tins. I really liked the adobo-glaze. We ended up eating the meatloaf on a platter covered with some no-sugar added pasta sauce and some soy parmesan. Pretty yummy!!

The leftover loaves go into the next recipe that I'll post!

Self Magazine Cooking Week: Vegetable Ragout

Yay!! This week I am going to feature several recipes from a Self Magazine article called Cook Once, Eat Healthy All Week. The idea is to have one shopping list and several interconnected recipes that use the same base ingredients. The shopping was really easy, the prep fun, and we have really liked all the recipes. I made adjustments and substitutions all over the place, but it was easy. Wherever it called for meat or dairy, I just used the veg subs I already had at home. I also adjusted the seasoning to be salt-free in most recipes using Mrs. Dash or a buncha herbs.

Here are the building blocks. I loved having containers of pepper and onions cooked and ready to go all week!

Today's recipe is the vegetable and chickpea ragout. It uses the onion/garlic mix and pepper mix, plus some of the veggies from other recipes. It is easy to freeze and save as well.

Here are our pastas to serve with the ragout. Sprouted grain for me, healthy penne for the mister.

The finished product with some soy parmesan and pesto on top :)

Still to come: shepherd's pie, veggie-fied meatloaf balls, and veggie-fied cheesy enchiladas. Yay for Self Magazine- I love it and these recipe ideas are really fun. They fit Eat To Live and it's really nice to be eating something besides salad and steamed veggies. For a creative lady, my kitchen ideas run out and this is a great jump-start again! See you later in the week!

Angela Birchett- Where I've Been

I am so proud of my brother!!! Check out Angela Birchett's album Where I've Been on iTunes. He is the pianist for the album!!!

Leslie & Senseo sitting in a tree...

First, check out this neat building in Miami! Made for me!

Now..todayI want to discuss my most favorite appliance. The dishwasher wins for most life-saving, and the Hello Kitty toaster wins for cuteness, but it's the Senseo coffee maker that wins on Oh How I Love You, You Make My Day Better points!

I've had this blue coffee maker for YEARS and it still looks great and works well. It's fun to make single serve coffee for myself, my honey, or guests. The coffee is good quality with a delicious little layer of thick foam on top. We have a regular coffee pot for lazy weekend mornings when we need tons of java, but this little single-drink machine is a lifesaver on busy days, or when I need a treat!

It makes small or large cups of coffee, depending on how many pods you use. I buy 4 packs of the pods on Amazon . It's a nice price in bulk. You can get regular coffees and flavored ones :)

In conclusion, I ♥ my Senseo and hope the blue wonder lasts forever!! Do you have a favorite kitchen item?

Superbowl Trip Highlights!

Whew!!!! The Superbowl was AMAZING!!!  I have never experienced anything like the tailgate, fan plaza, game, and after party! South Beach, where we stayed, is quite a scene to take in! I'm posting some pictures from the trip, and will do a couple of more posts about vacation food and such later. WHO DAT!!!!

Helloooo Miami!!! It was gorgeous weather and the scenery reminded us a lot of LA in lots of ways.

Here's the giant football arch over (I think!) Ocean Avenue. The street, bars, restaurants, and beach were all one big party the night before the game. See And Be Seen gone wild!!

Brad documenting his very furry playoff beard in our cool hotel room! Warren Sapp was probably busy getting arrested- we stayed right by that ill-fated scene. 

The requisite bathroom pic- we always do this! I was washing my shorts in the sink due to having sat in some unidentified party juice in the hotel bar garden. Ewww.

Not so tough...but trying!!

Saints tailgate at a hotel near the stadium. We ate, drank, and danced, then marched en masse in a Second Line to the stadium. Drivers all along the way were laying on their horns, yelling, playing music, and high-fiving us. It was quite a sight!!! True to NOLA fashion, the tailgaters drank so fast and so much the hotel couldn't keep up, and the DJ kept stopping the music to call for more alcohol. Hehehe!

My honey in his flag/cape holding that magic ticket!

This guy was sitting on our row! The stadium was sunny and looked great all ready for the game. Each seat had a little bag on it with a cool Superbowl towel inside. Beers were $10, sandwiches were $22! Holy moly!!

The Who were soo great. I have loved them since I was a teenager, and this half-time show was just an insanely great experience for me! The stage was circular and lit up with the Who logo and different color patterns.

Game action!! The game flew by!

Celebration!!!!! Fireworks, confetti, huge cheers!!!!

Brad's victory stance outside the stadium. Traffic and foot traffic was completely unbelievable. I am not sure how many hours and miles we wandered around in a huge crowd until we finally found a cab back to the beach.

The partying Superbowl weekend in Miami was still going strong at 5:30 am!!People were in our hotel pool fully dressed!! The next day we wandered the beach very tired...and very in need of caffiene!

Bleary and happppyyyyy!! We had like three different coffee stops the day after the game.

Bye Miami!! Thanks for everything!

WHO DAT!!

Giada-riffic!!!

Ok...I really love Giada! She's so pretty and cheerful and pronounces everything really nicely....rrrrreeesohhhtohhh!

Call me a sucker, but I was super excited to see that she has gotten on the bandwagon with all those foofoo people who show up at Target.

I decided to try the coffee and grabbed a nice little spatula for good measure.

Fun fun fun!!!

Breakfast Yums

Countdown to Superbowl!

Here's a great weekend breakfast we had recently. This winter, Eat To Live has had me craving more warm and substantial foods. I remember the days of giant plates of mashed potatoes, pasta, bread...mmmmm. Since I'm not jumping ship (no way!) I am trying to find healthy compromises that satisfy my need for cozy food.

This meal was a yummy tofu scramble, to which I added extra mushrooms and spinach for some healthy punch. I omitted the salt and used Original Mrs. Dash, which was pretty tasty. I threw on a few shreds of soy cheese and spooned on some salsa. The man had white-wheat toast, and I had sprouted grain bread. A steaming cup of coffee topped things off!

 Have a great day!

Black Bean Brownies for Valentines

What do ya'll think?

Black Bean Brownies for Valentines

I'm giving it a try!!

Pizza Toast & Super Cool Cups!

Way back when, I posted about my honey's favorite snack, pizza toast. Now on Eat To Live, I've devised a healthier version of the white bread/cheese/meat extravaganza that's my husband's fave.

I started with Ezekiel sprouted grain bread. Next went on some no-added sugar sauce, a sprinkling of veggie meat crumbles, and a bunch of sauteed vegetables. We baked them, and ate up. Yum-tastic and very fairly healthy!!!

Here are the neat new coffee cups we bought this weekend. Fun, huh?

Cajun-Spice Rubbed Tempeh

Vegan Planet is my favorite cookbook for tempeh recipes. This one did not dissapoint! Cajun spices are so yummy, and pretty easy to do in a low-salt way.

I defiled it like I do all my favorite foods...dipped it in ketchup!